Thursday, October 23, 2008

Tom Gorowsky Week: Thursday evening edition

As posted below, Todd has the projected lines, and Gorowsky is slated to play with Andy Bohmbach and Podge Turnbull, as so it appears the probability that TG will play this weekend is pretty high. (The lines aren't 100%, but they're usually pretty close.) Congratulations, Tom.

This morning I was temporarily foiled by the Madison Newspapers' archives being down, and I did my best with uscho recaps and box scores. However, I have circumvented the problem and now have some more articles on this morning's theme . . .

Saturday 2/10/2007 v. UAATG's goal in the 2nd period put the Badgers up 2-1 and became the eventual game-winning goal as the Badgers continued on to defeat the Seawolves 3-1.

But even with all the unorthodox scoring, the goal of the night was undoubtedly Gorowsky’s. The freshman wasn’t even slotted to play until Saturday morning, when junior Matthew Ford was injured during a morning warm-up.

Gorowsky made the most of his opportunity, and scored the game-winning goal on a one-on-one matchup.

“I was going to post up on the far blue line, just as an outlet,” Gorowsky explained. “The puck went over to the other side, me and Ben kind of made eye contact, and he tossed it out there for me, and I was lucky enough to have a step on the guys so that I could get a good shot off.”

Gorowsky’s shot was better than “good.” The freshman deked a few times, and chipped a wrist shot past Lawson into the lower left part of the net.

And from the WSJ:

No one in their right mind likes to play the role of understudy, but it's a task Tom Gorowsky does his best to embrace.

Though Gorowsky has been in the University of Wisconsin men's hockey lineup more than he's sat out this season, he's one of those guys scrapping every week for a place on the fourth line. Rarely does the sophomore winger get primetime minutes.

That changed Saturday night and Gorowsky made the most of his opportunity, scoring a huge goal that propelled the Badgers to a 3-1 victory over Alaska-Anchorage before a sellout crowd of 15,237 at the Kohl Center.

Pressed into third-line duty as well as a role on the No.2 power play when Matthew Ford was a late scratch -- he suffered an undisclosed head injury during a team workout earlier in the day -- Gorowsky converted a breakaway in the waning moments of the second period that stood up as the winning conversion.

"Every time you're not in the lineup you're itching to get in there," Gorowsky said. "You always keep yourself ready no matter what."...The Badgers had just failed to convert on their fifth power play of the night when Gorowsky took a heads-up pass from winger Ben Street and beat Lawson on a breakaway with 14 seconds left in the second.

"I was going to post up at the far blue line just for a quick outlet, then the puck went over to the other side and me and Ben kind of made eye contact and he (put) it out there for me," Gorowsky said.

"Up until that point, I thought we carried the play," Seawolves coach Dave Shyiak said after his club fell to 11-16-3 overall, 7-16-1 with 15 points in the WCHA.

Some karma from Ford, whose injury isn't serious, must have rubbed off on Gorowsky. Ford had the winning goal in the series opener.

"It's not the position you want to be in," Gorowsky said of his life on the lineup bubble, "but you've got to make the most of it."

It may be better remembered for the first contribution of a rapidly ascending freshman and another shutout from its star goaltender.

The significance of the performance of two others in the University of Wisconsin men's hockey team's season-opening victory, however, may wind up being on par with those clear-cut story lines.

Mike Davies scored twice in his collegiate debut and Brian Elliott added to his school-record career shutout total as top-ranked Wisconsin began defense of its NCAA title with a 3-0 victory over No. 19 Northern Michigan Friday at the Resch Center.

Maybe it's not what many of the sparse crowd of 4,968 walked away talking about, but what Badgers forwards Matthew Ford and Tom Gorowsky -- Davies' linemates -- added to the mix could be a major boost if it's the start of a trend and not just a chance occurrence.

Badgers coach Mike Eaves said before his team opened practice that Ford and Gorowsky, veterans who had been role players in the past, would get opportunities to show they could create goals for a team that needs them.

Friday, they made the most of that chance with three assists apiece as the Badgers won their season opener for the fourth straight year and continued their run of success at the Resch Center.

"They were given an opportunity, the ball was put in their hands and they came through," Eaves said. "What you build up is a trust in what they can do. And their trust factor, their stock, went up."...All three members of the line spoke of a fast-evolving chemistry between them. Gorowsky and Ford also have something to prove, and they have a chance to help a team that needs scorers to emerge.

"Before we came here, we were goal scorers and we got points," Gorowsky said. "Now, just to be able to come out here in our first game and get points when us as players need them and our team needs them is really helpful for us."

Said Ford, "Tonight was a big night for us getting a little confidence back."

Gorowsky's first game of his sophomore season produced more points (three) than he had in 18 appearances last season (two). Ford, a junior, bounced around from line to line last season but never was able to find a scoring role.

To Davies, it was easy to recall the genesis of the opening-night performances by his linemates.

"They're always making the extra effort," Davies said, referencing summer workouts that, for Ford and Gorowsky, didn't end until well after others were off the ice. "I guess they just wanted it more than a lot of guys. I would, too."

Additionally, I offer 2 Todd Milewski articles that detail TG's responses during his UW career to his struggle for ice time. Both articles are very good and are worth reading. (Since I currently can't link to the articles on the TCT site, you can read them here.)